I decided to crunch some numbers, and here’s what the hard data says about how the new measures affect my income. I’d love to hear from other sellers—how do you see the Ambassador Program affecting your income? Feel free to share your own calculations in the comments!
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product i sold today, 3rd party, royalty $3.27. same product, same price, also 3rd party, sold last month - royalty $5.81.
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Was it digital by chance? I paint my own artwork so when I decided to sell digital products I wasn’t keen, but the money was ok considering so I have been risking it. I thought I would get 90+% (that is around $6-7+ dollars normally) but just sold one 3rd party and only got $3.54? I am bummed as this is my own hand painted watercolor artwork. So now I am practically giving it away yet done all the hours of work. Not happy at all about that. I do understand it is work to get a sale but not more work than the time and years of practice to do my artwork. I hope this doesn’t mean I am forced in to rethinking digital sales again now?
because that isn’t good for the artist to lose that much! I didn’t even get half the sale price now 
I do think the type of sale needs to be taken into account.
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no, it wasn’t digital. it was a jumbo greeting card.
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Oh was hoping it was just the digital side, the example above is going to be more than a 32% down in my income if all like this? Just at a time when here in Australia food and shelter has never been so expensive, I already pay double tax on my earnings too struggling with this ;( it seems to be the way as soon as I make some head way the rules change and bam back to struggling on again. I promote every product I make out on to pinterest, and some on other social platforms already and have done so for years. But I will be honest the last time I got a referral was a year ago! I have done a few paid ads and again zilch for the money… guess I am going to have to work more hours for even less to bridge some of the gap or go off do something else with my artwork. It isn’t that always the way ;(
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Sold two clocks to someone in Aussie, 3rd party ref, presumably Zazzle.
My royalty rate is unchanged at 14.5%, total sale was $84 AUD, payout is $6.70 AUD, about 8% (and this is before the 5% tax on the monthly payout + PayPal fees).
It’s difficult to compare to previous sales due to all the factors involved, but it seems payout is reduced in this case by at least 25%. And Zazzle are recommending a royalty rate of 10%. Like, what?
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new royalty schedule - 3rd party
| 4/2/2025 12:11:25 PM | 1 | $62.06 | 11.7% | $3.27 USD | $3.27 |
old royalty schedule - 3rd party
| 3/30/2025 7:19:52 AM | 1 | $62.06 | 11.7% | $5.81 USD | $5.81 |
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Have knocked up my royalty rate to 24%. This is to mostly compensate for the 40% referral fee, given the bulk of my sales are from 3rd party referrals. My store is zrank 8, so I expect that’ll drop, possibly even to 6. Will see what happens, but a reduction to 10% base royalty + all the carve outs Zazzle charges is just not feasible.
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I just found out about the Ambassador program yesterday! So, I haven’t been able to say how it has affected my sales considering I have hardly been making many sales since 2023. One thing I have noticed is that my royalties on greeting cards are awful. I get pennies. I am pretty much just selling greeting cards for charity out of the goodness of my heart at this point. Although the 50% of sale through the Ambassador link sounds exciting. I will have to see how that goes. The only issue I ran into was; previous links that I have posted in various places online, are the affiliate ID link, not the ambassador link. Make sure to post your ambassador links because those are the only links that allow 50% of sale on your product. The old affiliate ID links only give 15% 
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I forgot to add that I have set my royalties to 14,9% (and haven’t changed this). Before 2025/04/01 this gave me net 12% royalties for third party sales and as of 2025/04/01 this gives me net 6,7% royalties for third party sales (and third party sales make up 68% of my total income)
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The ambassador link is essentialy the same as the self-referral link, it will not magically increase self-referrals as of now unfortunately, so this is not a ‘new opportunity’. For me self-referrals make up only 1,5% of my total income (calculated over the past 10 years) and I promote my products daily (not worth the while if you look at the numbers).
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Most of my sales are in the 3rd party category, so I am losing half of my income. What´s the point?
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I feel for you. These huge 3rd party carve outs are affecting everything, whether it be digital or not. In fact, it’s so bad it may just force me into going back to galleries again, where you pay for all the materials, the expensive framing, plus the time it takes to create something that will compete…then end up paying 50% or more to the gallery for commission on any sale. Then, of course, a carve out for the tax man.
Being a self employed artist has never been easy. Zazzle was an answer to keep producing at least a living wage for a number of years for me; I guess I should be grateful for that. But right now, my head is spinning with “what’s the next move”?
It would drive me crazy except that I remember that God has always provided, and He will continue to do that. God bless you.
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After seeing a lot of reports about the heavy reduction in earnings, I’m wondering if Zazzle doesn’t know that obfuscation isn’t a good road to travel. It leads to a loss in trust.
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I have improved the table for clarity. My royalties settings remain unchanged at 14.9%. The most notable change is the reduction in net royalties for third-party referrals (from 12% to 6.7%) and for self-referrals (from 50% to 25%). Presenting this as an opportunity for designers feels, at the very least, questionable.
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Oh yeah…judging from the “Ambassadors” responses, they seem to be running quickly down that road.
It all makes me just wonder…why?
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Hi, so I did raise my royalty rate and my store z rank dropped already. Now what does that mean to sales? Sorry I never really understood what the zrank is for. Thank you for your time.
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They may make us unhappy but it makes them more money. I understand advertising and other costs are to blame however, even if the math were easier to figure out for creators it’s still a wicked pinch.
Seriously, when you figure how much money we make selling via Zazzle and divide the time and expense, many creators are working for pennies an hour. And that was before April 1st.
I’m glad I was here early in Zazzle’s quest for POD dominance. I can’t imagine signing up for this now anew.
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Exactly. If you have not been good at marketing your products to this point, you won’t magically start being good now. Or your links won’t magically start getting clicked, and the cookies sticking. I have typed and erased a comment to the effect of yours in different places on the forums and in the end just cancel it. It’s just all so disappointing. I do know there are people that are already reaping the rewards of this, but it will be a small minority of designers who are already excellent at self marketing.
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My Z8 store went immediately to Z7 after I changed the prices.
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